Rwanda president blasts ICTR for inefficiency, conflicts of interest News
Rwanda president blasts ICTR for inefficiency, conflicts of interest

[JURIST] Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official profile; BBC profile] has criticized the UN-funded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] as inefficient, and said that several ICTR employees should be testifying before the court for their involvement in the 1994 genocide the court was established to investigate. In a press conference [recorded video] Wednesday, Kagame noted that the ICTR has convicted fewer than 40 people [ICTR backgrounder] since its inception in 1997 at a cost of $1.5 billion US.

In recent months, the ICTR has convicted a former Rwandan mayor for ordering executions, upheld the acquittals of two high-ranking officials, and sentenced a retired army officer to 25 years on genocide charges [JURIST reports]. The ICTR has delivered 26 convictions and three acquittals since its establishment, and the UN has set a 2008 deadline for it to complete trials for 26 other suspects currently under indictment. The Rwandan government estimates the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] left at least 937,000 Tutsis and some Hutus dead. VOA has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Egypt President Anwar Sadat visits Israel

On November 19, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, becoming the first leader of an Arab nation to officially visit. Two years later, President Sadat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel by signing the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Read President Sadat's address to the Israeli Knesset.

Jay Treaty signed

On November 19, 1794, US Chief Justice John Jay and British foreign secretary Lord Grenville signed a treaty in Philadelphia under which British forces pulled out of the disputed Northwest Territory. Review the Jay Treaty.